1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to an oil spill skimmer for collecting, skimming up and recovering oil from water in the event of an oil spill accident and, more particularly, to a skimmer designed to be arranged quickly on an oil-spilled area in the occurrence of an oil spill accident, thereby quickly recovering oil from water while restricting a spread of oil over a wide area, and preventing water pollution and contamination of marine environment, and allowing the recovered oil to be recycled.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the occurrence of an oil spill accident, it is necessary to remove oil from water to prevent oil from contaminating marine environment. In order to remove oil from water in the event of such an oil spill accident, an emulsifying agent may be spread on the water within an oil-spilled area, thus sinking oil to the sea bed. Alternatively, a great number of oil absorption sheets, made of paper or cloth, may be floated on the water within the oil-spilled area, thus absorbing oil prior to being recovered. However, the two methods are problematic in that they fail to effectively or almost completely remove oil from the water in addition to wasting labor, cost and equipment. In addition, it typically takes several hours, at least, or several days, sometimes, to arrange the main components of recovery equipment which may be sufficient to cope with large scale recovery, containment and separation of oil in the oil-spilled area, in the event of an oil spill accident, and so there may be a need for initial, emergency equipment to be rushed to the area prior to the complete operational set-up of the main components of recovery equipment. However, such initial, emergency equipment is not designed to contain the recovered oil-water mixture or separate oil from the mixture, thus regrettably allowing the oil slick to spread over a wide area, where it is very difficult or almost impossible for the main components of recovery equipment to completely recover oil from the water, due to tides, waves, winds and/or currents. That is, as the initial, emergency equipment fails to effectively recover oil from the water or to restrict the oil-spilled area within a limited area, the oil quickly spreads over a wide area along with waves, tides, currents and/or winds, thus forming an oil film on the water over a wide area before the main components of recovery equipment reaches the oil-spilled area. It is very difficult for the main components of recovery equipment to recover or separate such an oil film, particularly a heavy oil film, thus resulting in a serious contamination of marine environment.